Kitchen note: Fresh Garlic Harvest Notes for Home Kitchens is written for home cooks who want practical, seasonal food ideas without wasting ingredients or time. Use these notes as a starting point for fresher meals, better pantry planning, and simple weeknight cooking.
On the Wasatch Front, we harvest garlic during the last week of June or the first week of July. A good indication that the garlic bulb is ready is the browning of the leaves. When the garlic plant is 1/3 to 1/2 brown, it’s time to dig it up. If you wait too long, the garlic bulb or head will start to split apart into individual cloves.
- Dig deeply a few inches away from the garlic plant so you don’t risk slicing into the bulb with your shovel. Gently lift/lever the soil with the shovel as you pull the plant up and out of the ground.
- Leave the garlic plant attached to the bulb. Shake off the dirt from the roots and store in a dark, dry, well ventilated place (the garage is good) for 3 or 4 weeks.
- After 3 or 4 weeks, cut the plants from the bulbs. Keep the bulbs in a dark, dry, cool place (like the basement) in a container that provides airflow (like a basket). They will keep like this all winter. I made the mistake one year of storing them in ziploc bags. Even though I left the bags open at the top, the garlic bulbs still got moldy and rotten.
